World Wetlands Day – Protecting Our Wetlands For Our Common Future

World Wetlands Day is celebrated on 2nd February every year. It marks the date of the signing of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands on 2nd February 1971. World Wetlands Day was celebrated for the first time in 1997. Every year there is a different theme and the theme for World Wetlands Day 2025 is “Protecting Wetlands for Our Common Future”. What is a Wetland A wetland is a land area that is saturated with water, natural or artificial, static or flowing, fresh, brackish or salty and include areas of marine water, the depth of which at low tide does not … Continue reading

Extreme Weather Events Resulting From Climate Change

Regardless of where one is on the globe, the effects of climate change are very apparent and extremely threatening to the local inhabitants. These climatic threats are presenting themselves in four main ways, namely extended heat waves, devastating flooding, persistent droughts and extensive wildfires. These are presently the most destructive impacts of climate change, but there are other natural event occurrences. As well as the geo-physical impacts, there are also the accompanying increasing health risks, anxiety and stress issues, fatigue and exhaustion, just to name a few resultant factors. Right now with the summer in full swing in the northern … Continue reading

تأثير البيئة الطبيعية على صحتك العقلية

يقضي الكثير منا أيام العمل في الداخل تحت ضوء الفلورسنت مع اتصالٍ ضعيف أو معدوم بالعالم الطبيعي. لطيف كما يبدو للحصول على بعض الهواء النقي أو المشي بعد العمل، ولكن التفكير في الأمر قد يكون مرهقاً، خاصة عندما الأريكة تدعوك إلى المنزل بعد يوم طويل. لكن قضاء معظم الوقت في الداخل ليس جيداً لصحتك، وقد كشفت مجموعة متزايدة من الأبحاث المزايا العديدة التي يتمتع بها التواجد في الطبيعة على صحتك الجسدية والعقلية. تأثير بيئتك على صحتك العقلية في عالمنا الغربي الحديث، يقضي الكثير من الناس معظم وقتهم في الداخل. علاوة على ذلك، نحن نعيش في وقت يقضي فيه الكثير منا … Continue reading

Dugongs in Local Bahrain Waters: Perspectives

It appears that the Arabian Gulf is a preferred location for the marine dugong as the second largest population of this species, after those located in Australian waters, are found in the Gulf waters. The largest group sightings have been north-west of Hawar Island (between Bahrain and Qatar). From recent studies published in the Journal of Biological Conservation, the local population is around 6,000 dugongs. Just who or what is the dugong? What are Dugongs? The dugong belongs to the taxonomic group referred to as the Sirenian. It is one of four living species belonging to the order Sirenia. The … Continue reading

Eco-Friendly Rehab Centers: Why Sustainable Spaces Heal Better

Every sector of life is advancing, and we are seeing major shifts in how modern therapy is evolving to replace traditional therapy methods. Nowadays, you will find many more comfortable, and easy-to-follow practices to nurture the human brain, body and life approaches. Eco-friendly rehab centers are a step towards advancement and are proving to be better than the conventional ones. A person trying to recover from an addiction would never want to be reminded of it daily, and the prison-like, concrete rehab centers of the past did not make it any easier! Rehab centers are facilities where people can reconcile … Continue reading

A Message on Earth Day

Earth Day has now grown into a global environmental tradition making it the largest civic observance in the world and is widely celebrated event in which over one billion people from over 190 countries will participate by taking suitable actions for saving our mother Earth. The Earth Day was first organized in 1970 to promote respect for life on the planet and to encourage awareness on air, water and soil pollution. Each year a different theme or topic is selected. The theme of Earth Day 2018 is ‘End Plastic Pollution’. Plastic pollution is poisoning our oceans and lands, injuring marine life … Continue reading

VeryNile – Keeping the Nile Alive

Over the last decade we have become increasingly alarmed at the amount of plastic in our oceans. More than 8 Million tons of it ends up out oceans every year and if we continue to pollute at this rate, there will be more trash than fish by the year 2050. By the way, there are 3.5 Trillion fishes in the ocean now. Where does all this waste come from? After analyzing waste in rivers and surrounding landscape, researchers found that most plastic waste comes from rivers; and 90% of this waste comes from only 10 river systems. One of them, … Continue reading

تحقيق التوازن بين الحفاظ على البيئة والنمو الحضري: دروس من محمية الريم في قطر

محمية الريم الطبيعية في قطر هي منطقة محمية ومأهولة تقع في الجزء الشمالي الغربي من البلاد. يمكن الوصول إليها بسهولة من الطرق الرئيسية، وهي تبعد أقل من 50 ميلًا عن الدوحة، مما يجعلها وجهة جذابة لمن يرغبون في الاستمتاع بجمال الطبيعة دون الحاجة إلى تنظيم رِحْلات كبرى. يحمل هذا المشروع العديد من الدروس المهمة للأشخاص المهتمين بالبيئة. يمكن أن يساعد فهم المراحل المختلفة للمشروع في تحديد ما يجب مراعاته عند قياس النجاح وتحديد الأولويات. التعاون أساس النجاح تم إنشاء محمية الريم رسميًا في عام 2005. ونظرًا لأن الأرض تمتد عبر ثلاث سلطات قضائية، كان التعاون بين عدة جهات أمرًا ضروريًا … Continue reading

الإسلام و البيئة

تقدم المعتقدات، العادات، و القيم الإسلامية حلّا شاملا و فعالا  للتحديات البيئية الراهنة التي تواجه الجنس البشري. يمتلك الإسلام تقاليدا غنية تسلط الضوء على أهمية حماية البيئة والحفاظ على الموارد الطبيعية. وفقا للشريعة الإسلامية، فإن العناصر الأساسية للطبيعة – الأرض، المياه، النار، الغابات، والضوء –  هي حق لكافة الكائنات الحية، و ليست حكرا على البشر فقط.  إن القرآن الكريم والسنة النبوية الشريفة عي بمثابة نور يوجه تعزيز التنمية المستدامة في البلدان الإسلامية و في جميع أنحاء العالم. و قد أمر الله سبحانه و تعالى البشر بالابتعاد عن سوء استخدام و هدر الموارد، لأن مثل هذه الأفعال قد تسهم في تدهور … Continue reading

النحل والنظام البيئي

كرَّم الله تعالى حشرة النحل في كتابه العزيز حيث خصص سورة فيه عرفت بإسم سورة النحل (16،  مكِّيَّة، 128 آية ) ويقول فيها: “وَأَوْحَى رَبُّكَ إِلَى النَّحْلِ أَنِ اتَّخِذِي مِنَ الْجِبَالِ بُيُوتًا وَمِنَ الشَّجَرِ وَمِمَّا يَعْرِشُونَ (68) ثُمَّ كُلِي مِنْ كُلِّ الثَّمَرَاتِ فَاسْلُكِي سُبُلَ رَبِّكِ ذُلُلا يَخْرُجُ مِنْ بُطُونِهَا شَرَابٌ مُخْتَلِفٌ أَلْوَانُهُ فِيهِ شِفَاءٌ لِلنَّاسِ إِنَّ فِي ذَلِكَ لآيَةً لِقَوْمٍ يَتَفَكَّرُونَ“(69) . وعن ابن مسعود رضي الله عنه قال: قال رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم: “عليكم بالشفاءين العسل والقرآن“.. رواه إبن ماجه في سننه وإبن مردويه والحاكم وصححه والبيهقي في شعب الإيمان . ويعتبر النحل (مفردها نحلة) من الحشرات … Continue reading

Causes and Consequences of CO2-Induced Ocean Acidification

“The CO2 problem” has traditionally been understood as the fact that excessive CO2 produces global warming. But near the end of the 20th century, scientists started talking about a second CO2 problem, “ocean acidification”. Ocean acidification results from the fact that about 30 percent of our CO2 emissions have been absorbed by the ocean. This absorption keeps down the warming of the atmosphere that would otherwise be produced by these emissions. Ocean acidification involves the ocean’s pH, changes in which make the water become either more alkaline or more acidic. Tests have shown that “for more than 600,000 years the … Continue reading

Evolution: From Philosophical Ideas to Modern Evolutionary Synthesis

From the dawn of civilization, biology has evolved gradually, beginning with philosophical views in early ages, passing through periods of medieval substantial milestones, and ending in the scientific revolution of the modern era. Thanks to this progression, we have reached the modern experimental science, which has expanded the horizons of human knowledge and reached unprecedented innovations in various fields. Experimental science aims to understand and explain natural phenomena in a systematic and reliable approach, enabling the making of scientific predictions that can be tested experimentally. Experimental science is a systematic process that relies on observation, measuring, quantitative analyzing and experimentation … Continue reading